Lecturer, Judge Amul Thapar Nominated to 6th Circuit Court of Appeals

Update: The Senate confirmed Judge Thapar to the U.S. Sixth Circuit on May 25.

U.S. Judge Amul Thapar, a lecturer at the University of Virginia School of Law, has been nominated to serve on the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Thapar, the first Article III judge of South Asian descent, currently serves the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. He previously served as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky and as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Ohio and in the District of Columbia.

Professor Emeritus Lillian BeVier and Judge Amul Thapar teach their class, Judicial Philosophy in Theory and Practice, in January 2015.

“Judge Thapar is superbly qualified by temperament and intellect to be a circuit court judge,” BeVier said. “He will serve the country well. I learned much from him, and I think the students did as well.”

BeVier said several students who have taken the class have gone on to Supreme Court clerkships, “a fact of which we are inordinately — though perhaps justifiably — proud.”

Thapar has also worked for the law firms Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., and Squire Sanders & Dempsey in Cincinnati.

Between 1994 and 1997, he served as a law clerk to Judge S. Arthur Spiegel on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and for Judge Nathaniel R. Jones on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and Boston College.